I Know This Is Not The StoryYou Would Expect This Early 2015! But A Little Known Village In Cambodia Is In The News For The Wrong Reason. Mysterious HIV Outbreak Rocking Rhoka, Cambodia!

A little known small Cambodian town is causing scare, as there is a race to identify what is going on in the village by the Cambodian National AIDs Authority, the World Health Organisation, and UNICEF, the UN children’s fund.

RHOKA village is beautiful. Rustling trees hang over red earth roads, filtering the sunshine. Since it’s December, the usual 90 per cent humidity has dropped to 40 per cent, and a pleasant cool pervades. Butterflies flit between wooden houses on stilts.         

Since November, more than 200 people here have been diagnosed with HIV in a sudden outbreak whose source is still unknown. And the number is growing every day. “So far we have tested 1,700 people out of a population of 2,700,” said Chanrith Prom, who collected data as part of the official investigation into the outbreak.

“Two hundred and one have tested positive and a further 170 are suspected to be in the window period,” he continued, referring to the period of time immediately after infection during which the virus that causes AIDS doesn’t show up on tests.

The mystery outbreak in Rhoka is an anomaly in Cambodia — a country much praised for successfully reducing the rate of HIV infection from 2.1 per cent of the population in 1999 to 0.4 per cent in 2014. By these stats tiny Rhoka now has a rate of infection over 20 times the national average.

And it’s not just sexually active adults who are testing positive. Children, the elderly, and even two celibate Buddhist monks have been found to have the virus. “I couldn’t believe the result,” said Mom Heng, an 82-year-old head monk who tested positive for HIV in December. “I haven’t been with a woman in decades.”

The outbreak is incredibly localised. Only the one village appears to have been affected. “We’ve tested people from nearby villages but have found very few with HIV,” said Prom.

Get Full Gist Here; http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/mysterious-hiv-outbreak-in-rhoka-cambodia/story-fneuzlbd-1227172090664